The bane of every motorist’s life is driving on roads that are of questionable quality. The suspension systems on all modern cars are built to withstand even the harshest of road conditions, yet you will find that it is commonplace to encounter roads with large potholes on them – some of which are unavoidable.
For the most part, one will just end up having a rather bumpy ride but in the most severe of circumstances, permanent damage might be done to your car’s wheels, tyres, suspension and even bodywork. If this has recently happened to you, did you know that you can put in a compensation claim for your car to be repaired?
Image Credit: The Tire Zoo (via Flickr)
What causes potholes?
The roads that we drive on are mainly comprised of tarmac, although, in some places and even some parts of the world, roads aren’t paved in tarmac but instead have been laid with concrete.
Potholes are generally caused by extreme weather conditions such as snow or excessive rain, and nations such as the United Kingdom are notorious for being one of the few places around the world where roads are always having to be patched up or repaved.
Have you driven into a pothole recently?
If you have, chances are it will have done some damage to your car if it has knocked your front wheels car out of alignment. When this happens it’s best to take your car to your mechanic or to a tyre fitting centre to check that nothing else has been damaged.
The cost of wheel alignments usually means that pursuing a claim isn’t financially worth it, but if you have discovered that other components of your car have been damaged and will set you back hundreds or even thousands, I would definitely recommend pursuing a compensation claim.
Gathering evidence
One of the first things you will need to do is gather evidence of the pothole in question. As long as it is safe to do so, go over to the location of the pothole and take some photographs of it from different angles, making sure that you should photograph any nearby landmarks such as houses or sign posts for reference.
According to Imperial Car Supermarket, in order to determine the scale of the pothole it is worth placing an object such as a drinks can next to or inside of the pothole and photographing the two to support your compensation claim. If you can, I would also recommend measuring the size of the pothole with a measuring tape, and photographing the measuring tape in-situ as proof of the pothole’s size.
Next, you will need to obtain a few different quotes for the repair work to be done on your car, as you can submit these (or copies of them) as evidence of how much it will cost to repair your car.
Finally, you will need to document when the incident occurred, on what road, the date and time that it happened and the direction of travel. Once you have all of that information, you can them submit your claim to the local authority responsible for that road.